With a dense sonic approach, politically conscious and emotionally charged, dälek’s new work Brilliance of a Falling Moon once again places the duo in a space where music and reality are deeply intertwined. Between oppressive atmospheres, minimalist production, and a strong sense of social critique, the album emerges from an intuitive and collaborative process that reflects both the external world and the internal state of its creators. Inspired by literary references, personal experiences, and a sociopolitical context marked by tension and instability, the record expands the group’s identity without losing the urgency that has always defined their path.

By Sandra Pinto

In this interview, Will Brooks and Mike Mare explore the origins of the album, its creative process, and the way they transform observation and lived experience into sound and narrative.

How did the idea for Brilliance of a Falling Moon come about, and what inspired the connection to Erik Larson’s In the Garden of Beasts?
Dälek: I can’t take credit for that. As I was reading the book, there was a passing line in a letter from the Ambassador’s daughter describing the Berlin. She said “a copper smoke mist over Berlin by day and the brilliance of the falling moon by night.” I thought it was a beautiful line,
and adapted it to Brilliance of A Falling Moon. It wasn’t until I was being interviewed by John Morrison for the album liner notes and band bio for Ipecac that he asked me where the title came from and I told him in passing. After listening to the album, HE was the one who made
the thematic connection. He was right, I just hadn’t seen the reason why I had chosen that title. He is an amazing writer/interviewer, he knew how to ask the right question. He is also an incredible musician in his own right.

The album is described as a response to life in “fascist America.” Which current events or themes most influenced the lyrics and tone of the record?
Dälek: You have to understand that Black, Latino… really all people of color have experienced oppression in the United States for centuries. This is nothing new, just unveiled (again), and perhaps amplified, but that might be a result of living in the digital age. We collectively have been trying to tell y’all for a very long time now. It seems the oppression is being felt by more people now. So maybe more people will listen?

How would you define the central concept of the album and the message you want listeners to take away?
Dälek: Hope, resilience, and strength. That we are all in this together, but we aren’t here to spoon feed anyone. This music is primarily our therapy to remain sane in trying times. If it resonates with heads, that is very dope, but I spit what I need to say. Individuals will hear
what they need to hear.

“Better Than” is the first single released. How does it represent the new sound and energy of the album?
Mike- There is a sense of urgency that ‘Better Than’ delivers and helps represent the sound and energy of the entire album.
Dälek: Yeah its the urgency of it and its rawness. I think it lets you know the direction of this album within the first few measures.

The album is described as “sparse yet dense.” How did you manage to balance those elements in the writing and production?
Mike- The idea to keep the sonics sparse was intentional but I just think that we naturally approach writing in an emotionally dense way and that comes through no matter what. When we would sit to write a song we never felt like hey this needs more, more more, which we have
done in the past just because that was what we heard but this time we wanted to peel back the layers and part of that was with the intention that we can add to the songs live. If we kept them sparse we have more opportunity to have fun with additional layers live and that was very intentional. At the end of the day though the balance was very intuitive, we did not have discussions about it we just let it happen. Oh I will add that we let the vocals dictate the sonics quite a bit on this record, instead of Will writing and recording vocals to a track that was
almost complete, he would add his vocals and we’d let that dictate how the song would ultimately be sculpted.
Dälek: Yeah Mike pretty much summed it up. I think we were both taken aback by the sound of the raw MPC3000 and processed guitar tracks. They felt right as is, they didn’t feel like they needed much more than vocals, and we let those vocals drive the songs by lyrical content and by flows and styles.

You recorded at Deadverse Studios over 2024 and 2025. What was the recording and production process like?
Mike- Slow. Life gets in the way, schedules are more difficult to work around as we get older and when you think you have the time to get together plans change. We roll with it and make the most of the time we get to spend working together. It’s not like the days when we could
just lock ourselves in the studio for a few days at a time and not go home. When we started writing the only aspect of creation that we spoke of was writing the way we both did before we knew each other so that stripped it back to Will on the MPC and me on guitar. Of course we both have different approaches to how we use this tools now but we really kept everything raw and almost “live” for lack of a better word. We wrote so many tracks that did not make the album and not because we didn’t like them but just because they did not fit the story that was unfolding. The music told us where to go.
Dälek: I truly love working on music in the studio. It is my favorite aspect of all this, and working with Mike is a partnership that I am so grateful for. It was slow, but at the same time, time was limited. So every time we got to a session we would create 10-15 ideas, the creative
floodgates would open. Its from these initial ideas that the album was born. I think the pressure and time limitations also created and dictated what the album is. Time was as strong a factor as environment and moment was in shaping the songs.

The sound features heavy, dust-caked drum breaks and ominous atmospheres. What were the biggest musical influences for this new phase of dälek?
Mike- The world we live in is always the biggest influence, the moment we get together to sit in a room is the influence, hard to pinpoint any specifics as we are just looking in a window of what we are both collectively experiencing, and living through in the moment. A lifetime of
seeking and listening rot music makes it really difficult for me to pinpoint any specific musical influences. It’s an amalgamation of sound.

The album tackles topics like suppression of information, colonialism, and demonization of immigrants. How do you balance political critique with artistic expression?
Dälek: I do not have the luxury or privilege of separating life from politics. Again, I write what I need to in order to maintain. However, at the end of the day the song does need to knock, at least to my ears.

Will, you mentioned events like the ICE raids as inspiration. Are there any tracks written in direct response to specific events?
Dälek: No, it’s in response to everything.

Once again you collaborated with Paul Romano and Mikel Elam on the album artwork. How did the visual concept for Brilliance of a Falling Moon come together, and how does it connect to the music?
Mike- We give them complete freedom to create what they are connecting with. We never discuss artistic direction we want them to contribute not replicate. Just as we trust each other when we create the music we trust Paul and Mikel, it’s always an exciting part of the album process, we get updates along the way but it’s so awesome to just have these incredible humans add that next layer to something that speaks from our souls.

In terms of internal collaboration between Will Brooks and Mike Mare, how do you divide the process of writing and producing the music?
Mike- I don’t see it as dividing the process at all that would be very one dimensional in my opinion, we started this album as MPC and guitar so yes we had “roles” to start from but it’s never well ok you do this and I’ll do this, you mix this one and I’ll mix that one. It’s like Tag Team wrestling at some points where one of us taps out of a particular mode and the other jumps in. Someones ears and brain is fried so the other starts steering the spaceship.
Dälek: Yeah, that sums it up. There is no division. We both work on all aspects of writing, producing, mixing with the understood goal of getting the songs to the best place we can get them to.

What are your plans for the album after its release in terms of shows, tours, or visual projects?
Dälek: Yeah, I still have mad love for rocking on stage so we have a bunch of monthly runs in the EU coming up: March thru May. We are also hoping to line up an Australian tour this year, as well as some US and UK dates. Inevitably when we announce dates, the first comments are:
“why no show in X?’ “Why aren’t you playing Y?” But heads need to understand that we need promoters or festivals in those cities/countries to make us viable offers in order to make that happen. Especially in this touring climate, feel me?

How do you see dälek’s sound evolving in the coming years? Are there new directions or ideas you’re curious to explore?
Mike- Yes of course the sound should always evolve and not just to do something different but because we both always have different ideas and see, read or hear something that makes us think about a sound or style in a completely different way. Dälek has always been about creating what felt right at that moment and that should never change. As long as your alive you are hopefully growing, absorbing elements of life that are new to you and letting them speak through you however they need to. Something I am very curious to explore is using acoustic instruments, well anything but an acoustic guitar that is. I sometimes daydream about us performing on NPR’s Tiny Desk Concerts. What we could do completely stripped down but still get the sonic message across, I get lost in this world.

For someone hearing Brilliance of a Falling Moon for the first time, what experience or feeling do you hope they take away?
Mike- I hope people can step away feeling hopeful. That the words and music can help them feel love for another human being even when things might not seem worth it and see how we need to support each other. Music has such a special way of bringing people together from all
walks of life and coming together to experience emotions not only independently but as a collective and you can feel that energy even when you are just listening at home, that’s huge.
Dälek: I concur. These are love songs.